The VERY BEST of Second Life...

What and where exactly is the best of Second Life, for me it's a little Pagoda/Pergola in Fuchsia owned by Ingrid Ingersoll..just wonderfull.

So where is the perfect place to be in Second Life for you..?

Here's a few pointers that might help you think about that question..

1. You've got unlimited funds (lucky old you) and incredibly your perfect size of plot has become available in your perfect location..where would that be and why..?

2. You've bought the plot and now you want to landscape it..where/which location has most influenced you..?

3..Now you're going to build a house, who designed the perfect house for you (this assumes you didn't do it yourself)..where's the best example..?

What I'm asking is which single location in Second Life has influenced/impressed you more than any other..?

Well, SL is a commercial place, so I'll start off with a business:

Creative Fantasy Home & Garden
- in Serenity Falls (and 2-3 additional regions)
- by Julia Hathor

It's not just that her homes are magnificently beautiful and creative. It's that she's put it altogether in a fantastic landscape that I could (and do) explore for hours.

You can get some idea of it from this picture (linked because it's a little big):
http://ava.wavescrashing.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/serenity-falls.jpg

Definitely Serenity Falls. Girlfriend turned me onto that place, and it's fantastic.

Wastelands. When I first found that sim it was nothing but a craphole, now it's a craphole with style. Relic is pretty awesome too, as is Midian City, though the lag is insane.

I think lately just standing around using voice with my girl has been the best of SL for me I'm terribly bored with it, and it's added a new fun feature for us to play with, and we finally got it on our personal land, so I'm sure we'll be spending a lot of time just hanging out there.

My home, as well, since I noted other people listing theirs. It's in one of the new sims, Hunnicutt, and my girl decorated it very, very well =)

My home: The Isle of Wyrms; the regions of Limbo and Cathedral and my little sky workshop in Tir Infernis.

The lovely mainland Isle of Carlisle and my treehouse there. But the first place I go when showing people the magic of SL is the aforementioned Isle of Wyrms. Here be dragons!

I still think Damania is the most amazing place. It is on a 2-sim island and is a futuristic urban space - very serene in white marble and gold. This theme runs throughout the whole place. I can imagine the amount of time it must have taken to build, even taking account of duplication of prims or objects. There was a lovely frosted glass pearl-effect grotto there, which had gone last time I visited. But go see Damania, especially if you are feeling a bit down about SL - it will lift your spirits.

the absolute best art gallery is the current one built by Ceria Semple - amazing

Definately! I'm looking for a plot in Serenity Falls to set up my castle, and I'm learning a lot on landscaping by walking around at Julia Hathor's place.

Mandy C

1&2) Cave Rua - the underwater areas are beautiful. You often see mermaids or mermen, aquatic animal AVs, Whale-shaped buildings...and it's not just jumbled together, but it's beautifully done. The "landscaping" is a mix of aquatic plants and fish, and works so well together.

Above the waterline is a HUGE tree with caves and knot-holes that make for a lot of fun through exploring.

3) I can't get over the houses by Effulgent Brown. They all have an asian theme and are vary attractive. They're also usually moddable, which just adds to their appeal.

If I had unlimited funds to spend I would need area about 5000 to 10000 islands or sims.
I would make area that resembles being outer space, with planets that one could fly or live on, with huge area on ground level that resembles a swirling space like vortex.

I seen so many beautiful places its difficult to remember them all but the places I have liked best were from friends and aquaintances I met on the way.

Absolutely! My sl daughter is a mermaid there and after looking around....I became one too! Everything is finetuned to give an awesome experience to all that visit there.

Mandy C

Ditto! Love Isle of Wyrms.

Silk Waters Mountain, owned now I believe by Snakekiss Noir was a huge influence for me. It's so beautiful yet I hardly ever saw anyone there -- kind of sad, really.

Lauk's Nest is perhaps THE most spectacular though.

My first parcel of land I developed into a Japanese garden and tea house. It's quite magical at night and I love it there.

My second parcel of land became a whimsical neko shinto shrine. Both lands are still being tweaked.

My favourite place to play is in the gardens that Sensi Bliss built on Necros (behind my shrine).

Unlimited funds? I'd buy a private island. Why? Complete control of the environment and 15,000 prims!!!! *drools*



I can't remember teh name of the sim, but is the site of a Wiccan style store with a walkway that winds around and through hills beside the shopping area. Covering the whole island, the ideas with the land were ingenious. While I wouldn't copy such, the imagination and the ingenuity were inspiring. As was the peaceful feeling fromt he place, which is what, I believe, the creator was trying for.



Lordfly Doringo (Not sure on spelling of the last name). My current house is a modified build of one of his freebie houses. His portfolio is incredible. I'm not sure if he's still bopping around in SL, but for the one single person to build a house....yup, him.



Many. Can't say just one.

The sims comprising Gendel's Children. The detail in the design here is absolutely fantastic!!!

Abbey Island. I know the owner as a friend and watched it all get built. The detail and care placed into every prim amazes me to this day.

Those are only two, (mainly because my memory is worthless to be able to list things like that lol), but the creativity and imagination throughout SL inspires me on a daily basis. One of my favorite things to do (or was when sim-crossings were just a BIT smoother *grumbles and kicks a Linden in the shin*) is to get in my car and drive/fly around SL randomly, just seeing what I can find. You might be surprised at what all is out there =^.^=

~Jessy

As Serenity Falls appears on several replies I thought I'd take a closer look..Wow!! I'm guessing that because the area comprises a group of connected islands, those islands were presumably created by Lindon to the instructuions of the designer, and certain features such as the underwater detail were created specially. Does anyone know if this underwater detail and water transparency can be applied to existing land as a sort of landscape texture?

All private islands allow the owner to use custom terrain textures, perform extensive terraforming to extreme heights, and set the water level.

Specifically what underwater detail are you referring to? The terrain texture would be owner set, and any objects are set there by the owner (or their authorized helpers).

Not sure what you mean by water transparency. Do you mean about it being more transparent from above? Or that you can see farther when under it?

You may have just answered my query in that one statement.

What exactly DO I mean...not entirely sure myself to be honest...

Take for instance any section of mainland coast..the land dips down into the sea and whatever details were on the land continue into the sea..ie sand. The sea is a dark transparent blue and the visibility pretty much the same anywhere in mainland waters and ocean. At Serenity Falls however the waters have much more detail, they have rock and plant life and though the waters may appear more transparent I'm guessing they are in fact the same as everywhere else it's just we can see more detail that gives the impression of greater clarity.

Not sure if that helps explain what I mean.

Julia has put a lot of things below the water in many places (some of which are for sale by her), but that can be done anywhere. Check under the water in Rua, and you'll see some MAJOR detail there! (In face, many of the underwater decorations at Creative Fantasy come from Cave Rua.)

There is also a bug that makes certain underwater objects with transparent textures clearly visible from above the water. Sometimes it looks weird, but at other times it just makes the water look clearer.

Finally, at least on my computer, the appearance of water changes depending on the time of day. Usually the real deep stuff stays obscured, but the top 5m or so can be either opaque blue or a pale-blue transparent.

My home in Hunterwasser. Livingtree, Serenite, and many others. I tends towards beautiful, yet realistic locales.



It would be an island region, likely attached to Livingtree. I could make whatever I wished to make, and yet would have it close to friends.



Serenite, for its natural beauty. Also Tableau, for it's sense of being "real," and for the whimsical touches.



Well, the house I live in is prob'ly it. But it's cuz it's always been home. It was made by Deja Jarrico, but she is largely out of the game nowadays.



There's so many, for different reasons, though. Dat's what makes it hard. All of the above. Season's Altar, Thrill Ville (no longer around), Big Easy, Nakama, Tu Amor, and tons of others have provided me with inspiration. Lately, it's Greenies Home.

Mari

I dropped in on Serenite today and I can see why you would love it so much Marianne. This location demonstrates one of the great advantages of island living..the covenant..it protects the land by restricting the influence of the people living there (sometimes). The result is a community of like minded people living in total harmony with their surroundings (how naff does that sound..but it's true).

I was amazed when I went to 'Tableau'..what a contrast..looks great..but this was the last thing I expected..mid west..fifties cars..WHAT!!..I take it there's not two 'Tableaus'.

I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion I'll just have to buy an island...